December Inkjet Ink Factory Visit. Pablo M. Lee and Nicholas Hellmuth

Transcription

1 December 2016 Inkjet Ink Pablo M. Lee and Nicholas Hellmuth

2 1 Lim Kheng Tee (TRENDVISION President), Pablo M. Lee (FLAAR Reports ink evaluation manager) and Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth (FLAAR Reports founder and President) at TRENDVISION factory and office. Introduction to factory visit of TRENDVISION inks Before ITMA Asia + CITME 2016 in Shanghai, two evaluators from FLAAR Reports had the opportunity to visit TRENDVISION Technology headquarters in Zhuhai, China. During these visit we had free access to the demo room, R&D labs, and the entire factory where we could observe the ink manufacturing process and see test prints of their wide gamut of inkjet ink products. Since the first time that we noticed this company (APPPEXPO 2012) it has grown to become a recognized inkjet ink factory in China. But whereas some companies exhibit at all expos, TRENDVISION is focused on their ink, and not as much on being at every signage expo in all countries. So it is more efficient to have the FLAAR Reports show the world their factory.

3 2 TRENDVISION Technology was established at Zhuhai, China in 2004 with main mission of manufacturing inkjet ink, developing technology, high efficiency in chemistry and rigorous managing the entire manufacturing process. They cover a wide variety of ink products compatible with desktop inkjet printers, and wide format digital printer inks: UV-LED, solvent and textile inks.

4 3 Pablo M. Lee (FLAAR Reports), Lim Kheng Tee (TRENDVISION President) and Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth (FLAAR Reports) at TRENDVISION demo room. TRENDVISION Large Format Inkjet Products Ink Type Name Colors Printhead Presentation UV-LED T-ERF C/M/Y/K/LC/LM/W Epson DX5 1L Bottle / 1L Pack UV-LED T-R5F C/M/Y/K/LC/LM/W Ricoh Gen5 1L Bottle / 1L Pack UV-LED T-UKM C/M/Y/K/LC/LM/W Konica Minolta 1024i 1L Bottle / 1L Pack Eco Solvent T-SS21 C/M/Y/K/LC/LM Epson DX5/DX7 1L Bottle / 1L Pack Eco Solvent T-BS3 C/M/Y/K Epson DX5/DX7 1L Bottle / 1L Pack Eco Solvent T-SM1 C/M/Y/K/LC/LM Epson DX5/DX7 1L Bottle / 1L Pack Pigment (textile) T-EPR C/M/Y/K Epson Piezo 1L Bottle / 1L Pack Dye (sub) T-PND C/M/Y/K Epson Piezo 1L Bottle / 1L Pack

5 4 Desktop Printer Inks In the last fifteen years of visiting ink factories around the world I have never seen as many test printers for desktop printer inks. The TREND- VISION testing departments have every brand and every model of each year of every size and shape and kind of desktop inkjet printer. This is a message that this ink company is thorough.

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7 6 UV-LED inks It is clear that mercury arc curing is gradually being replaced by LED curing lamps. So it is intelligent of TRENDVISION to make ink for LED curing. Plus they have intelligently selected three printhead brands Epson for entry-level UV LED-curing printers Ricoh and Konica Minolta for mid-range UV LED curing printers DOWNLOAD NOW

8 7 The whole process of research, development and manufacturing of ink is carried under strict quality control. In an environment with controlled light (with special frequencies) to prevent the components in the formula to react to the normal lighting conditions.

9 8 Textile Inks DOWNLOAD NOW It is obvious that textile printers are a booming industry, both entry-level, mid-range, and highend. FLAAR Reports has attended the top tier textile printer trade shows around the world over the recent four years. So we have a good awareness of what is happening today and what will be the future. If you are new to textile printing, an Epson printhead and corresponding ink from TRENDVISION are a good start. After you gain more experience you can advance to more expensive printheads and a mid-range printer system.

10 9 Fabric printing is an important element of the growing fashion industry. Styles and fashion fads change so fast that it is easier to print short-runs with inkjet textile inks rather than to decorate lots of fabric with rotary screen printing or other old-fashioned printers.

11 10 Eco-Solvent Inks Strong solvents have a high content of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which require ventilation and extraction to protect the printer operators, and many of them retain a distinctive lingering smell on the PVC or other substrate, which makes the images unsuitable for indoor, use where people will be close enough to the signs to notice the smell. Eco-solvent inks by contrast have a relatively low VOC content and are even usable in a studio and office environments as long as there is adequate ventilation. They have little odour so they can normally be used with indoor graphics and signage. They chemicals don t attack the inkjet nozzles and components as aggressively as strong solvents, so they don t need such constant cleaning (though some printhead brands have issues with almost any and all ink). DOWNLOAD NOW

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13 12 Inks to come Dr. Nicholas was at the industrial printer expo in Milano two weeks ago. Although this was a totally different kind of expo than FESPA, SGIA or ISA (almost no actual printers on exhibit; the booths were just for the factory managers to meet other industry people), it was interesting to be part of this event. And one thing was evident from this industrial printer experience was that inks of the future will neither be latex nor necessarily UV-cured either. If you attended drupa 2016 you would have a comparable realization. So it was notable, that while I was deep inside the TRENDVISION factory, the owner was already fully aware of the upcoming trends in new inks.

14 13 Benefits for Printer Manufacturers If you are a printer manufacturer and want to sell more printers, then it is a good idea to offer a lower-priced ink (but this ink has to be as good as the more expensive ink you already are rebranding). Thus we suggest that printer manufacturers should visit the TRENDVISION factory (just north of Macau) and learn what the capable management and ink chemists here can offer you. And, if they don t already offer the ink you need, their chemists can develop what you ask for.

15 14 The R&D department is conformed by a very capable team, who are constantly in the search for the development of new products. The R&D department possesses a wide range of large format printers in which they test the different products under various conditions, to ensure that the ink meets the highest standards of the market.

16 15 Advantages for Distributors Distributors around the world write to ask FLAAR Reports what ink we recommend for them. What we have learned is that if an ink company changes ownership or changes presidents, the ink quality may not be consistent with the new CEO. So it was nice to find an ink factory where the owners are two generations of the same family. TRENDVISION is a consistent company. If you are a distributor, and wish to switch inks to either a more reliable brand and a reasonable price, consider contacting the TRENDVISION team. You can have the factory brand the ink for you. Pablo M. Lee (FLAAR Reports), Lim Kheng Tee (TRENDVISION President) and Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth (FLAAR Reports) at TRENDVISION factory visit. As you can notice here, we had full access to every part of the factory (which is of considerable size).

17 16 Potential for Large Printing Companies If your printing company is so large that you prefer to buy direct (from the factory) then contact the TRENDVISION factory.

18 17 Summary TRENDVISION s factory is in southern China (just a short distance north of Macau). The management are multi-national and thus speak diverse languages. English is fully understood and spoken both by the owner as well as head chemist and key sales manager. Fifteen years ago the goal of most factories in Asia was to make ink, media, and printers as cheaply as possible, and hope that they could conquer the world with low prices. Of course what happened is that the printers fell apart in a few weeks, the media was not fully coated, and the ink had issues with either clogging or longevity. During the last five years, printer manufacturers, ink companies, and substrate/media factories have learned that making cheap low-bid products was ruining their reputation. So several printer factories decided to change their approach and make printers that could compete with the quality of Korean brands. And ink companies realized that they could be more successful if their inks were of significantly better quality, longer-lasting outdoors in the sun, and had fewer problems with chemical hiccups. Media and substrate manufacturers learned that they would only be successful selling to big name brands in USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East etc if their media was dramatically better quality.

19 18 Prior to shipment, TRENDVISION s quality control team performs rigorous testing to ensure that the product meets the company s high standards. Every ink company in the world sooner or later have one bad batch of ink (caused by severe changes in local weather (heat and humidity) or caused by one of the chemical ingredients having a glitch). So what is important is that the factory maintains samples of every single batch, so the source of the issue can be understood, and corrected. We were frankly pleasantly surprised to see literally, warehouses of ink samples of so many good batches, just in case one batch needed to be re-tested in the future.

20 19 Watch Our Thus we enjoyed the two days in Zhuhai including an entire day learning about the style of leadership plus the quality of the ink chemistry. It is well known in the inkjet industry that the team at FLAAR Reports enjoys being in China, experiencing Chinese culture, and working together with Chinese companies. Indeed Nicholas was already studying Chinese art history while a student at Harvard in 1964 and 1966.

21 20 This report has been licensed to TRENDVISION Technology. But this report has not been licensed to any other printer manufacturer, distributor, dealer, sales rep, RIP company, media or ink company to distribute. So if you obtained this from any company, other than TRENDVISION Technology or FLAAR Reports, you have a pirated copy. Also, since some reports are occasionally updated, if you got your version from somewhere else, it may be an obsolete edition. FLAAR Reports are being updated all year long, and our comments on that product may have been revised positively or negatively as we learned more about the product form end users. PLEASE NOTE To obtain a legitimate copy, which you know is the complete report with nothing erased or changed, and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons, please obtain your original and full report straight from org or other web sites in our network such as www. wide-format-printers.net. Free Subscription Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration, benefits as well as deficiencies, is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR, via the various sites in our network. Copyright 2016